As a kid reading comics, I didn't think much about who else might be reading them--whether they were aimed specifically at kids. I suppose if I'd thought about it, I might have considered them entertainment for young people, in part because I didn't know any adults who read them but mainly because most of the ads in the comics were intended to appeal to kids. Even back then, the ads in a particular periodical were the best way to see what the intended audience for that perioical was.
Adults didn't buy Sea Monkeys.
Adults didn't sell seeds, or Grit (do they even still publish Grit?).
Adults probably weren't all that interested in x-ray specs.
However, kids weren't interested in building up their muscles in order to avoid having sand kicked in their faces at the beach in front of the fickle woman who had accompanied them there.
Teens and twenty-somethings, on the other hand, might have sent their money to Charles Atlas.
So even back then, there seems to have been some awareness that there were people other than kids reading the comics.
Now, when exactly was it that car ads started appearing in comics?
2 comments:
>Adults didn't buy Sea Monkeys.<
You never met my dad! ;-) My dad is single-handedly responsible for me reading comic books. We read them together, in fact. In a sense, I guess the old ads reached out to both of us.
Adults didn't sell seeds, or Grit (do they even still publish Grit?).
I just checked, and it seems they do.
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